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Re: Bayless Wants Portland To Deal Him

With all due respect you have no idea what you're talking about. Both of my roommates grew up with Bayless in Scottsdale, Arizona and he has always been a stand up citizen in his community and a really nice guy at the local gym. He held doors opens, talked to every little kid who wanted to talk to him and played team ball in pickup games. He plays hard and gets the game. He's simply frustrated that he's a talented guard on a guard-heavy team.

Please stop with all the character judging on this forum. It really gets old.

I'm usually with BnG but on this one I'm not. I think pretty highly of Bayless. However I believe most of this perceived attitude is from when we drafted him. He didn't seem very .... excited. It didn't come off well, but I'm curious if that's because we drafted him, or because he knew he was about to be involved in a trade. Agents have an idea most of the time if their guy is about to be moved as he's being drafted.

So, I don't know for sure, but that's what I'm assuming the idea about Bayless's attitude comes from.

Re: Bayless Wants Portland To Deal Him

Personally, I formed my opinion on his attitude after watching that Gunnin' for the #1 Spot documentary, which featured Bayless. In one scene Beasley came up behind him and pantsed him and Bayless responds, "Hey make sure he's not on my team. I'm freezing him out. He ain't getting the ball." I'd think he was joking if I just read that, but the expression on his face was dead serious. That and I think you could count the number of times he passed in that game on one hand.

The draft and this recent news just further confirm my opinion.

Now, I don't think he's a cancer or anything, and it seems like he certainly puts the work in and works extremely hard, but he's definitely going to rub some people the wrong way with how he carries himself. You could tell Beasley was a little taken back, like ease up, man. I'm just playing around.

Anyway, it's a non-issue because even if he does get traded, chances are it won't be to the Pacers because 1) I don't see a way to match up salaries that makes sense and 2) we need a point guard not another undersized shooting guard O'Brien can fantasize over.

Re: Bayless Wants Portland To Deal Him

Ya know what? There's this tiny part of me that's keeps thinking about that. They lose Oden for the season and could use a big man, but say they aren't thinking about it. (Yeah, because a lot of players can't be traded till Dec 15th anyways, so why tip your hand?)

The league and media pretty much knows we aren't happy with our PG play.

There are rumblings that Miller is on the block. Thing is, do the Blazers think they can make the playoffs led by Bayless and Blake?

If so, this seems to make a lot of sense:

Successful Trade ScenarioCongratulations on a successful trade.

Due to Indiana being over the cap, the 25% trade rule is invoked. Indiana had to be no more than 125% plus $100,000 of the salary given out for the trade to be accepted, which did happen here. This trade satisfies the provisions of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Jeff's just got one year left on his contract, so that's appealing to them, but could we take on the rest of Andre's contract? Would we want to?

As to Bayless, I don't see him helping us, as has been said (Luther Head fills any role Bayless would have.) and I don't know what to think of him. I think his main deal is his ego. He's been stroked for his entire life and now he's not getting the limelight and I think it's grating on him. I don't dislike him and don't see him as a "head case", but I think he'll only thrive on a few teams. (Bayless reminds me of DeJuan Wagner, for some reason, in terms of possible impact.) I could see him working for the Knicks, Warriors, maybe the Wolves. Miami or the Rockets. Just not here.

Hey! What're you kicking me for? You want me to ask? All right, I'll ask! Ma'am, where do the high school girls hang out in this town?

Larry is not coming back, he didn't have a meeting with Orlando for not reason, yeah he is coming back to the NBA but not to the Pacers, the notion that he is a taking a year off and then come back is absurd.

Re: Bayless Wants Portland To Deal Him

Wasn't Larry considered one of the BIGGEST TRASH TALKERS in the league....EVER.
No, not even close. Where are you coming up with that? He was cocky to be sure, but not a trash talker.(with a few exceptions, as with most players that play 10+ years).

Then the most recent pride and glory of Pacer basketball, Reggie Miller!!!!! There is a reason spike lee sent him black roses before knicks games....
Yes, and the reason is because Miller threw daggers in them with regularity. But as in jump shots, not trash talking. He did, on occasion, but again, not even close to the REAL trash talkers.

Get over it, PLEASE! If you dont, we're never going to get players like Larry, Reggie, Kobe...... and the list goes on

Re: Bayless Wants Portland To Deal Him

With all due respect you have no idea what you're talking about. Both of my roommates grew up with Bayless in Scottsdale, Arizona and he has always been a stand up citizen in his community and a really nice guy at the local gym. He held doors opens, talked to every little kid who wanted to talk to him and played team ball in pickup games. He plays hard and gets the game. He's simply frustrated that he's a talented guard on a guard-heavy team.

Please stop with all the character judging on this forum. It really gets old.

That sounds nice. But do you really think players don't change when they hit the NBA????

Re: Bayless Wants Portland To Deal Him

Even if we did I'm not sure he is the answer to anything we need. Maybe as a back up to T.J. (let's face it he is not going to come here and start) and then is he really better than Watson at this point in time?

I don't know that I like his game more than Price's game for the Pacers.

Bayless - better handles, quicker, better scorer in traffic

Price - more mature, better awareness on offense, runs a team from the PG more, better defender (Bayless has zip for defense usually)

To me Bayless is to TJ what Price is to Watson. It's not quite the same, not quite as simple as "poor man's version with potential", but almost. I'm firmly in the Watson/Price camp vs a TJ/Bayless camp.

TJ is more talented than Watson, but when you see them play you can tell that Watson is better for the TEAM needs.

Then you have the Jackson/Artest/Harrington factor. He asked for a trade, therefore he's a scumbag jerk of a teammate and we have no interest in that kind of attitude. You want to win? You want to start? You want to play more? You want to be more involved in the offense? These all fall under the umbrella of things we hate about a player.*

*if we already hate the player that is, otherwise it's a sign of competitiveness.

Re: Bayless Wants Portland To Deal Him

I'm usually with BnG but on this one I'm not. I think pretty highly of Bayless. However I believe most of this perceived attitude is from when we drafted him. He didn't seem very .... excited.--

It's more than just that, though that might be a good example of where people were concerned. Prior to the draft the one rumor going around on him was that at several workouts he left them with a bad impression of his attitude. I think in general that surrounded his attitude about working out for them, running drills or whatever he may have thought was "beneath him".

This rumor seemed to be partially verified when in fact he dropped from his top 5 standing all year long to out of the top 10. Certainly other factors might have been in play, but the smaller and less talented DJ Augustin was drafted before him as well.

So from the outside you had clear indicators of SOME TYPE of issue, something that scouts weren't pointing out while games were going on.

Then you get Portland and they continually turn to Steve Blake for huge minutes rather than trying to work Bayless into the fold. On top of this they then went and acquired Andre Miller.

So the Blazers by their actions are waving huge flags on Bayless. If he's got the talent then you would expect them to be exploring it by this point, as in finding ways to get him on the court and looking to clear up the PG/Combo jam in front of him.

Let's say Bayless is Rose, for example. Does Rose get zero PT while Blake gets 35 minutes? No. So how much worse does Rose have to be before he's getting regular DNPs? To me it seems like the Blazers would have to have a pretty low opinion of him not to be finding ways to get him involved. He is a big investment after all, costing them Jack and Rush.

Is he polite and/or well-mannered. Quite possibly. But is he an arrogant preppy jerk who sees himself above his teammates, playing defense or earning his way up the ladder??? That's where I think the questions lie.

I don't know the answer, I just know the "answer" the NBA has given us based on interest in acquiring him or playing him in the case of the Blazers. I mean it's not like Nate has a bad coaching record or doesn't know the guard position.

BTW - I scouted Bayless as a very strong prospect personally. I was thrilled to get him, but then even more pleased when we got Jack AND Rush. I was surprised by the draft fall and Portland PT.

We let Jack go. Fact remains that we got him in that trade and he was a hell of a lot better than Bayless. Rush is no worse than him and has shown flashes. Diogu was worthless and Josh is still on the roster.

Re: Bayless Wants Portland To Deal Him

We let Jack go. Fact remains that we got him in that trade and he was a hell of a lot better than Bayless. Rush is no worse than him and has shown flashes. Diogu was worthless and Josh is still on the roster.

And you've got exactly WHAT to argue your side???????

(that's what I thought)

..... that's what you thought? Are you kidding me?

Whether we let Jack go or he ran off and had an affair it doesn't matter. The fact is he was a 1 year rental. A 1 year rental on a team that didn't even make the playoffs is worthless. If he comes here and contributes to a championship, it matters. Otherwise, no.

Secondly, Rush has shown "a" flash. Not really enough to make the word plural. It was a couple week span at the end of last year and he has come in here this year shooting bricks and looking scared on offense just like most of last year.

Bayless is 3 years younger and buried on the bench of a team much better than our own. Yet, when Bayless has played he's looked anything except scared or intimidated. Those are 2 words I've seen used to describe Rush at times. To me that's already a damn good start. We'll find out the truth one day when Bayless is in a place where he can get some regular minutes. Certainly not before that.

If Diogu is worthless, so is Josh. Just being on the roster doesn't mean he's worth anything, it means he's willing to sit on the bench for a cheap salary and it helps the team with our money problems.